The old school, Stevington 2008 (© Bedfordshire Archives)
Tuesday 9th May 1916: Harry Read, the
schoolmaster of Stevington, has written a circular letter to his former pupils with news of many of their former schoolmates. A number are now
serving in Egypt, where Fred Dawson has managed a ride on a camel and Walter
Cox is enjoying himself immensely, living in a very large house which has been
taken over for the officers’ mess. Several of the men serving in France had
been expected home on leave for some time, but none have arrived. Bert Seamarks
has been “getting a good share of trench work”, and Ted Cox is “in the pink”,
despite serving as a bomber in trenches only ten yards in places from the Germans.
Hermon Hulett has been in trenches which had been taken from the French by the
Germans: “they were in a terrible state – badly battered and full of mud and
water in the bad weather”. Mr. Read also reports that, “The awful Irish
Rebellion is at an end, I’m glad to say, and a number of the leaders shot.
Several thousand prisoners have been brought to England. Germany is at the
bottom of it, of course.”
Source: P71/28/21/11
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